Many Xbox One owners will point to their console's out of the box Kinect function which sees a camera set up in front of your TV, pointing at you while you go about your daily business. Most Playstation owners actively shudder at this idea. There's no doubt that the tech behind the Kinect is impressive but by betting their house on it, Microsoft have fallen victim to a series of PR disasters with their flagship technology. The Kinect probably isn't a device set to spy on you but by dropping the necessity to always have the Kinect plugged in, Microsoft gave up the moral high ground and many gamers are still unaware that the Kinect doesn't have to be plugged in in order for the Xbox One to work. Couple that with Microsoft's alleged collusion with the FBI to circumvent encrypted emails and the hysteria surrounding the NSA's Prism system and you have a perfectly harmless device which is automatically associated with the seedy underbelly of a surveillance society.
